The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1887-06-25

poorest of all go without herring, and take
the salt liquor in which it was packed !
Meat is seldom eaten. In Grunthal, where
population is thiekest, there are few butch
ers, and these few find no custom. Down
below in the town of Sonneberg itself the
butchers live near together and kill much
and often. AT 4 O'Clock coffee is taken
again, or the water in which the butcher
has boiled sausage, which these unfortu-
mates call sausage soup. This they get for
nothing, or almost nothing, and they cut
slices of potato into it.
THE TOY SEASONS.
The toy business does not continue un-
brokenly throughout the year. From the
end of November to the beginning of
March almost complete want of work pre-
walls. These winter months are terrible.
The poor little savings are gone soon after
Christmas, and the family must starve
along upon the potatoes that have been
boarded or fall into the clutches of the
usurer. The first orders that have come
in are from the American dealers, who
send soon after Christmas, because the
staple articles which they order, doll
heads or little dolls and other such things,
are cheapest then, and at the time of the
Leipsic Easter Fair the Yankee purchasers
appear themselves. The season of whole.
sale export is from July 1st to October 1st,
when it reaches perhaps sevenfold the
height of the winter export. This brief
season must be made the most of by the
unfortunate workers if the family mainte-
nance for the year is to be earned at all,
and their efforts surpass all description.
Fancy working month after month eigh-
teen to twenty hours, day in, day out,
Sunday and Monday, in such dwelling,
with such food, and working on Friday
the whole night through in order to have
Saturdays task ready for delivery After
the Leipsic Autumn Fair when the urgent
orders como and American kilograms for
Christmas goods literally chase each other
along the cables, every human being who
can be set at work is pressed into the ser
vice of the toy industry. Whole families
work all through the night, and the heat
and dust and foul air must have been felt
to be appreciated, which reign supreme
here where the fire Is kept burning day
and plght to dry the wares, where dozen
human beings crouch in low-ceiled pen,
and at night cheap petroleum lamp adds
its fumes to the whole
The consequences of such way of liv-
ing are inevitable. In spite of the pure
forest air that pours down from the
heights through every lane and byway,
these unhappy people are pale and feeble;
they stoop and cough, have fiat narrow
chests and are small of stature, Such is
the race of toymakers ip the Thuringian
forest. In the peasant district, but short
distance thence, hardy race of Thur
ingians cultivates tfa soil; but their lean
faces, dry, bloodless skin, betoken the
wretched nourishment and overwork.
When the children are a few weeks old
they are fed with goats milk and bread
crusts, and when a child cries rag filed
with crrmbs and sugar is thrust into its
mouth to be sucked, sleeping and waking
The prevailing cause of death is consump-
ton for those who survive the fifteenth
year, anu the percentage of deaths of chill
dren under six months Of age is twenty
two,
To make matters worse prices are stead
lily falling, and employers and employees
are unanimous in the assertion that since
1873 the prices of the coarser, cheaper
sorts of toys have fallen fifty per cent.
The orders have increased, but only the
burden of toll has kept pace with them.
Twice as much is produced as of old and
scarcely the old remuneration is received.
1t is said with truth that one-half of the
world does not know how the other half
lives. How little we who buy our chill
dren German toys know Of the agony
which the race for cheapness, the pressure
of the worlds competition, the struggle to
hold the American market, despite the
American tariff, has cost the men and
women and little children who make them.